80s Pop Star Richard Marx Helps to Tie up Violent Korean Air Passenger

Eighties and early-nineties pop idol Richard Marx once again found his way into the limelight this week after he rushed to assist a Korean Air cabin crew struggling to control a disruptive passenger.

Richard Marx, the singer perhaps best known for the chart-topping hit song, “Hold on to the Nights,” helped the cabin crew take hold of a scary situation on a Korean Airlines flight from Nội Bài International Airport (HAN) in Hanoi to Incheon International Airport (ICN) on Tuesday. The 53-year-old rock star quickly assisted in restraining an abusive and violent passenger after it became clear that flight attendants had lost control.

After arriving safely at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) the following day, Marx told fans via Twitter that he doesn’t consider his actions on the flight anything special. “No big ‘hero’ move at all,” the singer wrote. “I just did what I would hope anyone would do in the same situation.”

While the musician didn’t seem to believe his own actions were anything especially commendable, he lambasted the airline for his needing to be involved in the incident at all. According to Marx, after the crazed passenger attacked a seatmate and grabbed a flight attendant by the hair, the cabin crew completely lost control of the situation. He noted that before he was forced to step in, the out-of-control passenger had already escaped being restrained three separate times. Marx also said that one crew member seemed unsure of how use the taser she briefly pointed at the abusive flyer.

“The all-female crew was clueless and not trained as to how to restrain this psycho and he was only initially subdued when I and a couple other male passengers intervened,” Marx wrote in a Facebook post shortly after the incident. “He then later easily broke his restraints and attacked more crew and another passenger. When we landed in Seoul police boarded the plane. Heading home to Los Angeles soon, but Korean Air should be sanctioned for not knowing how to handle a situation like this without passenger interference.”

A Korean Air official, however, told the Korea Herald, “The flight crew responded to the situation according to the proper protocol.” The airline pointed out that cabin crews receive annual training on the proper use of onboard tasers.

Marx’s wife, former MTV personality Daisy Fuentes, later posted photographic evidence on Instagram that seems to back up her husband’s account of the incident. “I feel horrible for the abuse the staff had to endure but no one was prepared for this,” she wrote. “They never fully got control of him. They didn’t know how to use the taser & they didn’t know how to secure the rope around him (he got loose from their rope restraints 3 times).”

[Photo: Shutterstock]